1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods of forming objects by depositing a hardenable flowable material, for example by spraying or extruding the material, onto a forming surface, and causing the deposited material to harden to form a portion of the object.
2. Description of the Related Art
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,140,937, issued Aug. 25, 1992 to Mitsuo Yamane et al., there is disclosed an apparatus and a method for forming a three dimensional article which employs ink jet heads for jetting a thermosetting resin onto a forming stage. X and Y axis controlled devices are employed to control the movement of the ink jet heads in the X and Y-axis directions, and a Z-axis control device controls movement of the forming stage in the Z-axis direction.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,134,569, issued Jul. 29, 1992 to William E. Masters, teaches the use of a dispensing head for extruding a continuous strand of fluent material onto a base. The dispensing head and the base are indexed so that the material forms a desired cross-sectional profile and, thus, a three-dimensional object.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,329, issued Jun. 9, 1992 to S. Scott Crump, discloses an apparatus incorporating a movable dispensing head provided with a supply of material which solidifies at a pre-determined temperature, and a base member, which are moved relative to one another along X, Y and Z axes in a pre-determined pattern to create three-dimensional objects by building up material discharged from the dispensing head onto the base member at a controlled rate.
Further methods and apparatuses for forming an object by dispensing a fluent material onto a support, the material then hardening to form the object, are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,260,009, issued Nov. 9, 1993 to Steven M. Penn and 5,216,616, issued Jun. 1, 1993 to William E. Masters.
It is, however, a disadvantage of such prior apparatuses and methods that the size of an object formed in this way on a forming surface or in a container is limited by the size of the forming surface or container itself. Therefore, these prior methods and apparatuses are suitable only for the manufacturer of relatively small objects.